Football-mad Malachai Krkac has been staying up for the World Cup games, cheering on his father’s homeland of Croatia from his couch.
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He’s the biggest football fan in his family – even though all four Krkacs sport Croatian colours, Malachai is the one who has been staying up.
“I get the passion mostly from dad, he’s been playing a lot since I was born. It runs through the blood.”
He’s pushed through late nights during school term to watch his side, with goalkeeper Danijel Subasic his favourite player.
“He shows me a lot about goal-keeping and that’s where I normally play,” he said, referring to his games at Waratahs under 12s.
Malachai’s side will do battle with France, who go in as firm favourites.
Flora Mortimer hasn’t been as able to wake up to support her country of origin, and admits she’s “not a great football fan”.
“But because it’s France I’m into it. My family are all in France and they’re all crazy,” she said.
Her tournament highlight has been watching France defeat Australia with her Australian husband Tim, and piling on the trash talk when Les Blues won.
And who wins? Mrs Mortimer is confident the French will get it done 2-1, while Malachai is expecting to chew his fingernails down, predicting the score 1-1 after extra time, with Croatia to win 5-4 in penalties.
The final kicks off at 1am on Monday morning.